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I fucking love that movie and I totally agree. For my money that is Walken's most menacing role. The guy is just scary, grimy and worst of all unscrupulous.

Impressive list you compiled there man. But there is one guy you left out:

Yeah, I’ve actually only seen that once so that’s why that particular bastard would’ve totally slipped my mind. Good catch. I need to check it out again the next time it pops up on cable. Even though not everything needs a downbeat realistic gritty ending where the veteran criminal outsleazes everyone else, I was still taken aback that this mean old career bastard got taken out by Sherriff Marge from Fargo when it was all said and done.

It wasn’t until a few years ago that I finally saw Blood Simple so basically I always thought of M. Emmett as that guy from Harry And The Hendersons (and a bunch of other stuff where he was a harmless curmudgeon) and constantly confused him with Ned Beatty. I’m sure he’s played quite a few other bastards (his episode of Tales From The Crypt) but I always thought of him as more of an old grouch than the devious treacherous greedy slimebag he played in Blood Simple. Great performance.

If we extend the magnificent bastard conversation to the entire decade of the 80’s, you have to include Ramrod too; still the most vicious on-screen pimp ever. I don’t know if you could get all the way to 25 as good as the bad guys I listed but it would be fun trying to narrow it down to a top ten from a list of 25 or 30 for the best of the 80’s baddest.

And shame on me for not including "The Howling" & "Silver Bullet" in my 80's horror list. I actually enjoy "Silver Bullet" more than I do "American Werewolf In London". Sacrilege I know but I have to be honest..

As for Silver Bullet, I’ve definitely seen it more times than The Howling (which I actually own on DVD but have only ever popped in once or twice) due to it being in regular rotation on cable and for that matter as many times as An American Werewolf In London. Even if it’s just on in the background most of the time, I still know it like the back of my hand. The thing with Silver Bullet is that the reminiscing sister voice-overs make it almost Disney-type corny shit. Then again it has plenty of awesome un-Disney shit like the drunk railroad worker getting his head chopped clean off.

Make no mistake about one thing though. While I may shit on that overgrown overstuffed teddy bear I mean werewolf (from Silver Bullet) now that thing scared me shitless when I was a young’un watching it on video for the first time.

Speaking of werewolves, I’ve noticed several recent reviews pointing out how much better trashy classic The Beast Within would’ve been if they’d just made Dick Jones's bastard kid a werewolf instead of a damn mantis man or whatever the fuck he was supposed to be. I mean even the title lends itself to being a werewolf feature.

Then again that makes me wonder if Hollyweird had already shot their wad on iconic werewolf designs. Winston’s wolfman was the next great one we’d get. Then again, the mantis man didn’t really sprout until about 15-20 minutes left of The Beast Within. All the kills before then were kind of generic shit because I guess the kid hadn’t fully undergone whatever metamorphosis shit he was going through. Plus there would've been some swank implied werewolf rape. Ah, what could've been....

I can't fault anybody for preferring another werewolf movie over an An American Werewolf In London as it worked better as a black comedy than straight-up horror.

Since Dave can articulate the merits of that movie way better than I ever could, just head on over and let his review sell you on it. Don’t be worried about the spoilers warning heading. It’s just revealing that Paul White (Keith) is the killer, which every piece of artwork and really every review I’ve ever seen touting this movie didn’t bother avoiding.

Here’s the YouTube link again.

[YOUTUBE]eTLTrO5Z_-k[/YOUTUBE]

I don’t know when this is gonna pop up on DVD so you might as well check this out while it’s still up.

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I personally believe the 1970s were the best era for horror. We had the best of Fulci (well... early 1980s I suppose) and Argento, as well as the emergence of truly great American horror. To me the 1980s were pretty fantastic as well, and the 1990s are mostly ruled by J-horror. Things have been goofy ever since.

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The 70's had some great films that helped lay the ground work for great films of the 80's.

THIS!! I really can't decide between them. These were the movies that shaped my childhood - from creature features, to Argento, late night chiller tv and Elvira, to turning me into an 80's slasher whore.

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Its a decent list, the only film I haven't seen is Hellraiser 2. Notable omissions I guess are films like Poltergeist, The Omen and Friday 13th although the 3rd came in at no.31. Also a lack of Japanese horror.

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Its a decent list, the only film I haven't seen is Hellraiser 2. Notable omissions I guess are films like Poltergeist, The Omen and Friday 13th although the 3rd came in at no.31. Also a lack of Japanese horror.

Get on that man, one of the few sequels that could possibly be better than the original. It's great.

Did just notice there isn't any Japanese horror too. Think Ju-On or Ringu should have made it.

I do need to see Cabinet of Dr. Caligari though.

“I know you’re ‘good’ people. I know you mean well… But you just didn’t think it through…. There is only one path to peace… Your extermination.” - Ultron (Avengers: Age of Ultron)